commencement is dead so lets spice things up with some eulogies.
The Gracedias, led by OM Leader April and Doubles mainstay zoe, started with full credits going into the auction. The managers opted not to selfbuy, instead focusing on supporting their team in AAA and PiC respectively. The team's star player is Rofna, who they bought for a whopping 22k. That might seem like a lot for a bum who doesn't build, but he's one of the best pool farmers in OM and boasts a 13-7 record on the OMPL sheet; provide him teams and he'll win games. Then they bought Betticus for 17k. Betticus is someone who's had deep individual runs on multiple occasions, but he hasn't been able to translate that success in team tours yet. In a pool as strong as AAA, 17k seemed overpriced, so it's on him to justify this pricetag. They bought 3 players for PiC--HiZo, jasprose, and ValiantValerie--for a combined 20k, though jasprose can provide value in ORAS PH as well. Expectations were high on this core to perform. They followed this by buying players like about15gals, Electra102, Nashrock and Clem for decent prices.
Rofna didn't disappoint--a 5-0 record across 5 tiers is absurd output for any team. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Rofna was essentially the Gracedias' life support. And then things started going downhill. The rest of the roster couldn't keep pace. The second major buy, Betticus, ended up going 3-3 in AAA and Inh. That's obviously not a disastrous season--in fact there's a week left so he could still go positive--but it's simply not enough to provide the momentum the team needed. The PiC trio went 2-3. If you're spending 20k on 3 players for a single tier in a tour with over a dozen tiers, your core better dominate the competition or you're in for a suffering. Unfortunately, the latter was the case here, and the strategy didn't work out. The team had zoe for support, so they likely could've saved their credits for an anchor pick in another tier. Props to jasprose for the clean 2-0, though--they just didn't get enough chances to impact the season. The team relied far too heavily on 3k / low-cost buys to fill critical slots. That's not inherently a problem, but it becomes disastrous when none of them overperform. Many of the cheap buys juggled between tier changes every week, so it's fairly unreasonable to expect them to. about15gals and Electra102 played 4 tiers and both ended up with a couple of wins. Not bad for 3k, but it can't save the team. Clem and Rei both went negative and didn't really have much support afaik. The final blow was eeriespell and Ineros not notching a single win--going 0-4 and 0-5 respectively, again juggling between multiple tiers. It's just impossible for the team to recover from the 0-9, and all playoffs chances were killed.
Most people thought the Gracedias' weekly tier picks were confusing--and sure enough, they didn't seem to work out. Their draft did have strong players, but it lacked depth, with many of their better-priced players underperforming or not seeing the field at all. Chloe, their third most expensive buy at 10k, didn't play a game until week 6. They bought Fragments and HAVOCKNIGHT for a combined 15.5k, but they ended up not touching the sheet. Their overreliance on cheap buys bouncing around from slot to slot to outperform the competition proved to be fatal. When 8 of your players go negative, you know something went wrong. In the end, a better budget management and actual coverage across tiers might've saved them, but sometimes that's how it goes. The Gracedias head home.
Machamps eulogy later if I don't get killed for this
The Gracedias, led by OM Leader April and Doubles mainstay zoe, started with full credits going into the auction. The managers opted not to selfbuy, instead focusing on supporting their team in AAA and PiC respectively. The team's star player is Rofna, who they bought for a whopping 22k. That might seem like a lot for a bum who doesn't build, but he's one of the best pool farmers in OM and boasts a 13-7 record on the OMPL sheet; provide him teams and he'll win games. Then they bought Betticus for 17k. Betticus is someone who's had deep individual runs on multiple occasions, but he hasn't been able to translate that success in team tours yet. In a pool as strong as AAA, 17k seemed overpriced, so it's on him to justify this pricetag. They bought 3 players for PiC--HiZo, jasprose, and ValiantValerie--for a combined 20k, though jasprose can provide value in ORAS PH as well. Expectations were high on this core to perform. They followed this by buying players like about15gals, Electra102, Nashrock and Clem for decent prices.
Rofna didn't disappoint--a 5-0 record across 5 tiers is absurd output for any team. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Rofna was essentially the Gracedias' life support. And then things started going downhill. The rest of the roster couldn't keep pace. The second major buy, Betticus, ended up going 3-3 in AAA and Inh. That's obviously not a disastrous season--in fact there's a week left so he could still go positive--but it's simply not enough to provide the momentum the team needed. The PiC trio went 2-3. If you're spending 20k on 3 players for a single tier in a tour with over a dozen tiers, your core better dominate the competition or you're in for a suffering. Unfortunately, the latter was the case here, and the strategy didn't work out. The team had zoe for support, so they likely could've saved their credits for an anchor pick in another tier. Props to jasprose for the clean 2-0, though--they just didn't get enough chances to impact the season. The team relied far too heavily on 3k / low-cost buys to fill critical slots. That's not inherently a problem, but it becomes disastrous when none of them overperform. Many of the cheap buys juggled between tier changes every week, so it's fairly unreasonable to expect them to. about15gals and Electra102 played 4 tiers and both ended up with a couple of wins. Not bad for 3k, but it can't save the team. Clem and Rei both went negative and didn't really have much support afaik. The final blow was eeriespell and Ineros not notching a single win--going 0-4 and 0-5 respectively, again juggling between multiple tiers. It's just impossible for the team to recover from the 0-9, and all playoffs chances were killed.
Most people thought the Gracedias' weekly tier picks were confusing--and sure enough, they didn't seem to work out. Their draft did have strong players, but it lacked depth, with many of their better-priced players underperforming or not seeing the field at all. Chloe, their third most expensive buy at 10k, didn't play a game until week 6. They bought Fragments and HAVOCKNIGHT for a combined 15.5k, but they ended up not touching the sheet. Their overreliance on cheap buys bouncing around from slot to slot to outperform the competition proved to be fatal. When 8 of your players go negative, you know something went wrong. In the end, a better budget management and actual coverage across tiers might've saved them, but sometimes that's how it goes. The Gracedias head home.
Machamps eulogy later if I don't get killed for this
